Thursday, December 18, 2008

America's courts-martial scheme is burdened by a grim reputation. Experienced readers of courts-martial records become conscious always of power and design. In the series of courts-martial surrounding Operation Iron Triangle (9 May 2006), these distinctive factors quickly emerge from the shadows as a ship emerges from dense fog.

Army Ranger -- Staff Sergeant Raymond L. Girouard is being punished without a jury trial for crimes he never committed.

Courts-martial records are full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. In consequence of reading yesterday some of the earliest Iron Triangle reports the diabolical government agency that acted against Ray and Ray's men took immediate shape and became coherent.

JAG-knifed, Ray Girouard pays with his life for Michael Steele's avarice of rank and audacity.

Colonel "Black Hawk Down" Michael Steele was Iron Triangle's senior on-scene commander and was in Ray's chain of command on 9 May 2006. Steele is a man of reputation.

The small mysteries attendant to the Iron Triangle investigations and discipline hearings are quickly undone with exposition of Steele's unique command climate and Steele's own personal rules of engagement (ROE).

50 to 71 people died during the IT operation. Army officials buried all the bodies in a tomb of classified records.

Steele--a disciple of Civil War General William T. Sherman--crafted an ROE that employed a system of urban infantry warfare fully expressing the power of the U.S. government designed to force the Iraqi people to succumb.

The quicksand foundation in the conduct of the preliminary investigations and in the Article 32 hearing does not support the weight of any of the subsequent IT courts-martial. Instead the hidden hands of government intent are exposed. Ray and his men were picked to protect and shield with their freedoms and their lives the IMAGE of the U.S. Army.

Ray's court-martial, as all the others, were command performances of the 187th Infantry Regiment. These were "family affairs." Mike Steele (brigade commander) was Nathaniel Johnson's, Jr. boss. It was Johnson who ordered the Article 32 investigation into being.

Johnson ordered James P. Daniel to sit as the Art. 32 hearing officer.

Daniel's duty as hearing officer to the formal Art. 32 was to impartially find and report facts.

But Daniel abrogated his authority as impartial fact-finder secretly switching roles to become a combination military detective and prosecutor. A government advocate. Ray's deliberate and dedicated enemy.

Daniel's subsequent activities rendered his own Art. 32 investigation, along with Ray's court-martial (and all the others) not just voidable, but void. All of the IT disciplinary hearings are nothing...as if they never occurred.

Nearly two-hours earlier, at 1700 hours (5:00 p.m. local), James Daniel met privately, one-on-one, with suspect Michael Steele. There were no attorneys present. Daniel's purpose at this pre-Art. 32 gathering was to issue to suspect Steele his formal rights warning regarding the events surrounding the IT operation. Daniel would have interviewed Steele had Steele agreed to waive his protections.

Daniel met with six other Iron Triangle suspects to read them their protections and conduct interviews had these men been amenable. That Tuesday afternoon Daniel met with suspect Daniel C. Hart at 1649 hours, with Eric J. Geressy at 1650 hours, and with suspect Leonel Lemus (2253 hours) after the fake 32 hearing shut down.

Daniel met with Micah B. Bivins, Kevin A. Ryan, and David A. Neuman. The date and times of these secret meetings are not recorded.

The scope of Daniel's criminal conduct is extraordinary. None of the seven clandestine encounters were attended by attorneys. NONE OF THEM!

There's more.

In the first thirty-minutes of the Art. 32 starting that Tuesday night, Mr. Michael Waddington (civilian defense counsel for defendant William Hunsacker) asked James Daniel, "Do you know Colonel Steele?"

Daniel answered, "I've met him. I don't know him." Daniel continued, "We're not friends," I've never worked with him." Of course, at this moment in time and place, Daniel lied to a squad of attorneys representing Ray and the others.

The Article 32 hearing officer--Army Lieutenant Colonel James Daniel--openly lied in an open gathering. Daniel's lie is one of the keys that unlocks the door to Ray Girouard's prison cell.